Pacific Cup

The Pacific Cup was a rugby league football competition, inaugurated in 1974, as a development competition for national teams from the Pacific region outside of Australia and New Zealand. The tournament ceased in 2009.

In 2019, a similar competition called the "Oceania Cup" was founded. This time it featured Australia and New Zealand, in addition to many of the Pacific Cup nations, who had since established themselves in the sport. The competition has a single edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was re-founded in 2023 as the Rugby League Pacific Championship.

History

The Pacific Cup was started in 1975 by Keith Gittoes of the New South Wales Rugby League. It was held twice in the 1970s before being abandoned due to cost.

The competition was revived in 1986 by Peter Donnelly. This was a true Pacific Cup with Polynesian players playing for their true country of origin rather than for the NZ Maoris as had previously been the case . The competition was held biennially until the 1996 competition was postponed. Instead a 1996 Pacific Challenge was held. The Super League ran an Oceania Cup in 1997.

The Pacific Cup was revived by the New Zealand Rugby League once again in 2004, this time as a secondary competition to the Pacific Rim Championship. It was again held in February and March 2006 under NZRL administration, this time as a main competition.

In the post-2008 Rugby League World Cup shake up of the international calendar by the RLIF, it was confirmed that a Pacific Cup was to be held in 2009 with the winner of the tournament entering the 2010 Four Nations tournament.

The 2009 tournament was hosted by Papua New Guinea. The competing teams were Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga.

Appearances

Eighteen teams from ten nations have taken part in the 12 Pacific Cup tournaments held to date:

1. REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori – 11 appearances

• Tonga – 10 appearances
• Samoa – 9 appearances
• Cook Islands – 7 appearances
• Fiji – 7 appearances
• Papua New Guinea – 6 appearances
• Tokelau – 5 appearances (1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 2006)
• Niue – 5 appearances (1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2004)
• American Samoa – 3 appearances (1988, 1992, 1994)
• File:Australian Aboriginal Flag.svg Australian Aborigines – 3 appearances (1990, 1992, 1994)
• Template:Flagicon New Zealand Residents – 2 appearances (1996, 1997)
• Western Australia – 2 appearances (1975, 1977)
• Victoria – 2 appearances (1975, 1977)
• Fijian Presidents XIII – 1 appearance (1994)
• Template:Flagicon Rotuma – 1 appearance (1994)
• Norfolk Island – 1 appearance (1992)
• Template:Flagicon Friendly Islands – 1 appearance (1990)
• Northern Territory – 1 appearance (1977)

Finals

Year	Host		Winner	Score	Runner-up		Losing semi	-finalists		Number of teams
1975			REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori	38–13	File:Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg Papua New Guinea		n/a	n/a		4
1977			REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori	35–12	Western Australia					5
1986			REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori	23–6	File:Flag of Samoa.svg Samoa		Tonga	Cook Islands		6
1988			REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori	26–16	File:Flag of Samoa.svg Samoa		Tonga	Cook Islands		6
1990			File:Flag of Samoa.svg Samoa	26–18	REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori		Tonga	File:Australian Aboriginal Flag.svg Australian Aboriginies		8
1992			File:Flag of Samoa.svg Samoa	18–14	File:Flag of Tonga.svg Tonga		REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori	File:Australian Aboriginal Flag.svg Australian Aboriginies		10
1994			File:Flag of Tonga.svg Tonga	34–11	File:Flag of Fiji.svg Fiji		Samoa	File:Australian Aboriginal Flag.svg Australian Aboriginies		9
1997			Template:Flagicon New Zealand Residents	20–15	REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori		n/a	n/a		6
2004			File:Flag of the Cook Islands.svg Cook Islands	26–16	REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori					6
2006			File:Flag of Tonga.svg Tonga	22–14	File:Flag of Fiji.svg Fiji					6
2009			File:Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg Papua New Guinea	42–14	File:Flag of the Cook Islands.svg Cook Islands		Tonga	Fiji		5

Results

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Semi-finals
REDIRECT Template:Country data Māori	4 (1975, 1977, 1986, 1988)	1 (1990)	1 (1992)
Tonga	2 (1994, 2006)	1 (1992)	4 (1986, 1988, 1990, 2009)
Samoa	2 (1990, 1992)	2 (1986, 1988)	1 (1994)
Cook Islands	1 (2004)	1 (2009)	2 (1986, 1988)
Papua New Guinea	1 (2009)	1 (1975)	-
Template:Flagicon New Zealand Residents	1 (1997)	-	-
Fiji	-	2 (1994, 2007)	1 (2009)
Western Australia	-	1 (1977)	-
File:Australian Aboriginal Flag.svg Australian Aboriginies	-	-	3 (1990, 1992, 1994)

See also

• Pacific Rugby League Championship